Houston Callaghan: The Devil's Bastards MC

by Kendra Plunkett-Witt

“Yeah. Legal end’s kind of slow. So, I called Dez. Money was wired into Arkansas Dan’s account twenty minutes ago. She sent back information on a meet. Speedy and Josẽ are on their way already. It’s fifteen minutes out from here.”

  “I want us two to ride out to meet them,” I told my sister. “Send Vat, Jay and Bryant out to help Tate. I want Fabio meeting us.”

  “I’ll make the call,” Alec said, and I looked to my Aunts as I headed to his bike. Stella sat with Susanne on the front porch swing, arms wrapped tightly around the grieving mother.

  Kristy was on her phone. Organizing the women in this half of the state most likely. The old ladies Kristy ran didn’t always have active men anymore. They were ex’s who were still at least semi loyal, sisters, widows, daughters and women who left the life. But they made up a massive search party and they knew people in every walk of life.

  I mounted up and followed Destiny to a small back parking lot of an empty storefront on the far end of Laredo. Speedy and Josẽ slipped from the shadows on foot and Josẽ worked the lock and cut the alarm.

  “Dez will call if any alarms hit,” Destiny said with a nod. The club was keeping Dez on a retainer, I was glad I had the means to pay what was necessary to get Amelia back. The cut did this as a favor, Dez had high rates.

  “She should be here any minute,” Speedy muttered.

  “Fabio will be right behind her,” Destiny added as we walked into the small empty storeroom. A few boxes lingered, the front windows papered shut, a small counter and a tiny back room that had been storage next to an even smaller bathroom. Not a hell of a whole lot to work with. Not a hell of a whole lot to clean up either.

  Headlights pulled in front of the storefront, forcing through the thin parchment paper that blocked the windows. Speedy and Josẽ slipped into the back room, standing just aside the door-less entryway.

  I stepped in the shadows behind the counter and leaned as casually as I could force myself to against the wall as Destiny walked to the front door, flipped the lock and stepped to the side of it drawing her blade from her hip.

  The door opened slowly, and the slight frame of Felicity O’Dell stepped through. She timidly walked forward, and the door slammed shut and Destiny stepped between her and the opening.

  “You this coyote I was told could help me?” Felicity said staring through the darkness at me. She was dressed in designer jeans, high heeled boots and a leather jacket. The bag she carried on her shoulder probably cost half as much as my bike. She was good at what she did.

  “I can do a lot for the right price,” I finally answered.

  “And what would that price be?” Felicity’s voice was steady. I had to hand it to her, she wasn’t scared of the situation she found herself in. If what Dez had said was true, she was experienced in the game of crime. The white collar shit she was in was as equally dangerous as things I had been messed up in in the past. Felicity’s lifestyle was just prettier.

  “It’s not what we can do for you, it’s what you can do for us,” Destiny said stepping behind Felicity.

  The con-woman turned and faced the biker princess.

  “I can do a lot for the right price,” Felicity smiled coyly but her posture shifted just so. She was worried now.

  “You give us the information we need, and I let you live,” Destiny shifted her shoulders back and spun her blade in her hand. Destiny had the force, but she enjoyed the show just as much.

  Felicity struck out Destiny and landed a pretty firm hit. Destiny faltered as I launched myself forward and Speedy and Josẽ ran from the backroom. Felicity had almost made the door in the split second as Fabio’s bike pulled directly in front of it.

  Felicity slid to a stop and Destiny grabbed her and threw her on the ground away from the door.

  Fabio slipped into the door and Destiny reeled in her temper. Felicity slowly righted herself and we let her stand.

  “Damn bikers. I see Dan’s loyalty is equal to the check. What is it you think I can get you?”

  “We want your boyfriend. Brad Charlon. Where is he?” I growled, my forced persona wouldn’t scare Felicity. She could run a game, she knew how to play. I wouldn’t scare her.

  “I’m not telling you shit. You’re looking for that bitch cousin of his? You can’t save her,” Felicity smiled. Even if she figured she had a chance in hell of walking out of here she wasn’t going to give in.

  “Destiny,” I ordered. The moral code we lived by said we didn’t exactly like hitting woman. Though in this situation I might make an exception. Every now and then it was nice that Destiny was in the crew.

  “I’m guessing you won’t break with a punch or two,” Destiny said staring at Felicity.

  “What do you take me for?”

  “Boys,” Destiny directed. Speedy and Josẽ grabbed her and drug her into the spare room. They flipped on the light and forced her a long-forgotten waiting area chair. Josẽ pulled a length of rope from under his cut and tied her hands behind her.

  “What nice boots you have on,” Destiny said kneeling in front of her. Felicity tried to kick her, but Destiny wouldn’t be had a second time. She grabbed the woman by the ankle and ripped the boot off. “Not my size.”

  Destiny pulled Felicity’s sock off and stared down at her foot and then sat her blade aside. She then pulled a small pack from her cut and opened it. Oh, hell no, I knew where this was going, and it made even my stomach twist just a touch. If this bitch wasn’t standing between me and Amelia I might stop Destiny.

  “You have got to make her stop hanging out with Vat,” I muttered to Fabio.

  Destiny pulled the long needles out and Speedy dropped to the floor next to her and helped hold Felicity’s foot and Josẽ covered Felicity’s mouth to muffle the screams as Destiny drove a long needle in between the toes.

  Felicity jerked and struggled but no one let up. Finally, Destiny released her foot, needle still intact and stepped back. Speedy and Josẽ let up.

  “She stops when you start talking,” I said as Felicity gasped for her breath.

  “Go to hell!”

  The three latched back on and once again they went to work. A minute later they released their prisoner again.

  I knelt in front of her. “Let’s try this again. Tell me where Brad is keeping Amelia, or this gets worse. And trust me, this can and will get a lot worse. You know what death is Felicity? It’s the release of pain. So, killing you, no one here will take pleasure in it. But you will pray for death long before it comes for you.”

  “And if I tell you where he is?”

  “You stay here, under watch until he’s found. Once we have Brad you walk away. But without a dime you made off the robbing George Charlon,” Destiny threw in.

  Felicity chuckled, and Destiny’s phone rang. She rocked back on her heels, stood up and walked to the other side of the room as she answered. “Hold on Dez, you’re going on speaker.”

  “Felicity O’Dell, her real name is Beth Rizzoli. Born February 4th 1991. Evil bitch. Been running cons since she was fourteen. Felicity is only her latest in a string of persona’s. She has not one but two offshore accounts in Denmark. We’re draining those as we speak. Re-payment schedule to some little old ladies she’s screwed over the years. I’ll send you a printout later.

  “Oh and, the last five large deposits she’s gotten, that comes from the Capital Creation Investments. Just after ranchers sold out after they initially declined the original offers from the group. All ranchers are in Texas and New Mexico and all of them were hit by a string of cattle rustlers.”

  “Send it to Travis,” Destiny directed her.

  “All of it?”

  “The less than fun parts,” Destiny said and Dez groaned and disconnected.

  The Ames and Callaghan family turned to Felicity. “I guess that the millions you just lost is a bit more painful than the needles,” Fabio grinned.

  Something buzzed in Felicity’s jacket pocket. “She has a phone?” I asked.

  “Okay so we’re not
thinking the most logical right now,” Destiny said and ripped it from Felicity’s pocket. By the time she tossed it to me, the phone had already rung to voicemail.

  Generic smart phone. Still a burner. I knew the type, someone like our con-woman guest would have the best of the best. That number had called seventeen times in the last three hours. I hit redial and put it to my ear.

  “Felicity! Where are you! We got to get going,” the voice came from the other end. “Felicity!”

  “Hello Brad.”

  There was a brief pause. “Fuckin’ Callaghan.”

  “We need to make a trade. I give you your precious Felicity, and I get Amelia back,” I said looking at Felicity and clicking the phone to speaker. “Say hello Felicity.”

  “Hey baby,” she said in her sweetest voice.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Just fine. Um, just tell him where she is. Give him the stupid cattle and that bitch cousin of yours and me and you can make a break for it. I got friends in Ecuador that can get us anywhere we want to go.”

  “I can’t, I can’t just hand her over Felicity.”

  “They’re going to kill me baby. Brad please, please save me, I love you,” Felicity’s tears were real that she cried but she was pouring it on thick. She didn’t give a shit about Brad and she’d ditch him before they made it to the Texas-Mexican border.

  I took the phone away from her. “Give me a location Brad.”

  Easy enough to give Brad the feeling of power by picking a place. Destiny waived her hands in front of Houston’s face trying to get his attention, she pointed to her phone and mouthed ‘We got him.’

  “Intersection, just west of town about four miles, County Road Twelve. Twenty minutes.”

  “Fine. I want to talk to Amelia.”

  There was a long pause and some shuffling noises. “Houston? Houston?”

  I felt my chest rip open with relief. I had tried so hard not letting my mind go there but part of me wondered if she was already dead.

  “Amelia. Baby you’re going to be okay. We’re coming for you, I’m coming for you Half-Pint,” my voice nearly broke.

  “Twenty minutes,” Brad said, and the line went dead.

  “Get the bitch on her feet and take her car,” I said to Fabio. “Josẽ go with him.”

  Destiny looked at me as Josẽ got Felicity to her feet. “I don’t trust you or me to take her,” I explained as we headed for our bikes.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Amelia

  He was coming for me! I heard his voice telling me he was coming for me! Lord how I wanted to cry with relief but damn if I would do that in front of Brad. I didn’t want to know the deal; didn’t want to know how it would all play out. It only mattered that it was going too. Soon I would be out of here and with Houston.

  Brad paced around like he knew it was all going to end quickly and probably not in his favor. He stormed back over to me, bent over and sliced the restraints on my feet. He stepped back and trained the pistol at me again.

  “Stand up bitch, we’re leaving. You make any sudden movements and I will kill you,” Brad ordered and for once I believed him.

  Slowly I followed his directions and headed towards the door. I opened it and we walked into a second garage bay next to me, the cattle truck. The cows were getting restless; but they would last a little bit longer.

  “Open the bay,” he ordered, and I unlocked the roll-up door and pushed up for all I was worth. The door rolled up with the sounds that rusty metal made, and Brad pushed me towards the truck.

  This time it was the front passenger seat. He tied my still bound hands to the handle on the ceiling. The handle I knew wasn’t entirely all that strong, but I wouldn’t be able to yank myself free in one fluid movement and be able to attack an armed Brad at the same time.

  It was something a man like Houston would have been able to do, Destiny too perhaps. I wouldn’t have to worry about breaking myself loose. He was coming for me, Houston was coming for me. All would be okay.

  Brad drove, and I struggled to figure out where it was we were. As knowledgeable as I were with the area surrounding Homeland, the empty country road looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

  Brad never said a word once we got inside the truck. Which was fine. I didn’t feel like talking anyhow. My cousin had been a dick when we were kids, but we had been close whenever the Lorbosh family visited the ranch. I never knew that when Dad died, and we came to live at Homeland he had felt so betrayed, like he was being robbed.

  The two of us had worked side by side together every day since. We fought like cats and dogs and I would have liked to kick his ass on multiple occasions. But we were family. Family didn’t rob family blind. Not our grandfather, not a ranch that had been passed down for a hundred and fifty years.

  Family didn’t kidnap family either. Didn’t put guns to their head and threaten to pull the trigger.

  Brad was nothing to me anymore. Nothing at all.

  We drove through what I estimated to be five miles of darkness. No lights near enough to make out the surroundings besides the headlights from the truck. Just miles of empty South Texas cattle fields.

  Brad was moving forward at a good clip when we came up on a four-way where bright lights shone in our faces. He had to slam on his breaks and skid in the gravel to keep from crashing into them. I tried to hold fast to the handle he had tied me to but without my seatbelt on my body still went sliding forward and I slipped into the front floorboard, slamming my head into the dash, hands still latched together above my head.

  I felt the truck slam into park as I struggled to pull myself back up, Brad cut my hands free and yanked me his direction by my hair. “Come on, for fuck’s sake! Out my door.”

  Unable to get my feet underneath of me in time as Brad pulled me from the truck, I fell into the gravel below.

  “Amelia!” I heard the thunder in Houston’s voice and a tear of relief escaped me as I pulled myself up.

  “She’s fuckin’ fine!” Brad shouted, though his pistol was still at the back of my head. “Where is Felicity?”

  The lights that shone on us made it unable for us to see who was behind the light. There was the sound of a scuffle and then the bright lights from the car were switched to dims and I could make it out to be a small new silver BMW convertible.

  Houston was standing in front of his bike, Destiny in front of hers. Fabio and Josẽ were pulling Felicity from the car.

  She was looking worse for wear and was barefoot as they pushed her forward towards Houston who grabbed her by the arm and walked her forward.

  “Let Amelia come to me and I will let her go to you,” he called out to Brad, but Brad only angered at his command. I could feel the barrel of the pistol as he dug it into my skin. “I’m warning you Brad! Let her go!”

  I could see the shift in the Bastards. They could all drop Brad from here but none of them before he squeezed the trigger and killed me first.

  “I ain’t got a weapon on Felicity, Brad, look at her. There’s no gun on her, count of three we both let them go.”

  “No,” Brad said, and I started to lose her hope. I got myself into this, I should have waited for Tate. The family I wanted, the family that came to rescue me stood just feet away and instead the family I had was going to kill me in front of them.

  “I have to have a playing chip Houston. We both know you won’t let me out of here alive once you have Amelia. Hand over Felicity now. Once the two of us make it clear of Texas we’ll leave Amelia off on the side of the road. Scouts honor,” Brad countered and in terror I looked at Houston.

  He shoved Felicity to her knees and put his Glock to the back of her head in an instant. The woman shrieked bloody murder. Houston was going to kill her. “No, Houston! No!” I screamed to him and I watched him stare down at his gun, at the base of Felicity’s head.

  He looked up at me where I was barely still standing, gun still pressed to my head. If Houston pulled that trigger, then Brad would
do the same in a fraction of a second.

  In that moment, I knew my chances of survival were slim. Brad had lost what remained of his rational and sane thought processes. The one thing I would not do though, was die in this crossroads, die in front of Houston. If my last breath was spent ensuring he didn’t have to watch me go…I’d be okay with it.

  “Let her go Houston,” I said sobbing. “Brad still has to have a leverage card. We ain’t walking out of this one Prince Callaghan. Not right now. Let Felicity go, and I will find my way back to you. I promise.”

  As dehydrated as I was, the river I cried was a shocking product of my emotions. But I didn’t care. Brad Charlon was going to kill me, but I couldn’t let Houston see that. He saw what happened to his mother, knew too well what happened to his brother. Maybe the role was just pretend, but I was his old lady, and somewhere inside of him, I knew that meant something. I wouldn’t let him see me die too.

  “You’re right, we ain’t, but you are Half-Pint,” I heard him say and he drug Felicity to her feet.

  “No!” I shouted as I knew what he was about to do.

  “You let Amelia go,” he said tossing his Glock on the ground and kicking it away. “And you get Felicity and me in exchange. Otherwise, you’re bitch dies here.”

  Houston pulled his second Glock from his holster and tossed it with the first, then he added his knife to the pile.

  “Fine. You two, in the truck. Felicity tie him in the front seat,” Brad ordered, and Felicity and Houston walked towards the opposite side of the truck. “Once he’s tied up, I will get in the driver’s seat and we will drive off. Any sudden movements and he will die. Got it?”

  “Houston no!” I shouted as he climbed in the passenger seat.

  “I love you baby girl,” I heard him say as he gave me a small smile I could barely see in the darkness as Felicity bound his hands to the same place mine were tied just a short while ago.

  “I love you too, Houston. I love you too,” I sobbed, and Felicity finished binding him, slammed the passenger door shut and climbed in the back.

  “Destiny! Get her out of here!” Houston called to his sister and Brad released me, shoving me away as he jumped into the driver’s seat. He sped off in reverse, whipping his truck around before I could find my strength to lung forward.